Contents

History

Welcoming sign in Coushatta

Green space at entrance to downtown Coushatta

Red River Parish and the Red River Valley were areas of unrest and white paramilitary activity and violence after the Civil War, and especially during the 1870s of Reconstruction. The parish was based on cotton cultivation, dependent on the labor of enslavedAfrican Americans who far outnumbered the whites. After the war, white planters and farmers tried to reestablish dominance over a majority of the population. With emancipation and being granted citizenship and suffrage, African Americans tried to create their own lives.

Formed in May 1874 from white militias, the White League in Louisiana was increasingly well-organized in rural areas like Red River Parish. It worked to turn out the Democratic Party, as well as suppress freedmen's civil rights and voting rights. It used violence against officeholders, running some out of town and killing others, and acted near elections to suppress black and white Republican voter turnout.[5]

The White League also killed five to twenty freedmen who had been escorting the Republicans and were witnesses to the assassinations.[7] The events became known as the Coushatta Massacre and contributed to the Republican governor's requesting more Federal troops from U.S. PresidentU.S. Grant to help control the state. Ordinary Southerners wrote to the White House describing the terrible conditions and fear they lived under during these years.[8]

With increased fraud, violence and intimidation, white Redeemer Democrats gained control of the state legislature in 1876 and established a new system of one-party rule. They passed laws making elections more complicated and a new constitution with provisions that effectively disenfranchised most African Americans and many poorer whites. This disenfranchisement persisted for decades into the 20th century before passage of civil rights legislation and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

After World War II, Dr. Lawrence Edward L'Herisson, Sr. (1925-1988), a native of Bossier Parish, built a 23-bed regional rural hospital in Coushatta. He subsequently relocated to Shreveport with his wife, the former Mary Sloan (1925-2016).[9] Coushatta is now served by the 25-bed Christus Coushatta Health Care Center.[10]

Dr. L'Herisson's father-in-law, whom he never met, Lawrence Wiley Sloan (1892-1935,)[11] died in an accident during the early attempt to bring electricity to southern Tennessee. The Tennessee Valley Authority, launched in 1933, honored Sloan by designating his then nine-year-old daughter, Mary, to throw the switch that energized the region.[9]

There were 738 households out of which 38.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.4% were married couples living together, 31.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.6% were non-families. 27.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.82 and the average family size was 3.48.

In the town, the population was spread out with 33.3% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 22.7% from 25 to 44, 17.8% from 45 to 64, and 15.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 78.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 73.7 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $15,500, and the median income for a family was $18,958. Males had a median income of $30,938 versus $13,833 for females. The per capita income for the town was $10,228. About 44.6% of families and 49.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 64.0% of those under age 18 and 19.7% of those age 65 or over.

National Guard

Coushatta is the home of C Troop 2-108th Cavalry Squadron, a unit dating back to the Confederate Army during the Civil War under the nickname "the Wildbunch". This unit was formerly known as A Company 1-156 Armor Battalion and served recently in Iraq during 2004-5 under the 256th Infantry Brigade. This unit just returned from its second deployment to Iraq in 2010.